Troy alumni, Super Bowl champs Ware, Umenyiora respond to Fallon
Published 3:00 pm Friday, March 17, 2017
One of Troy University’s most notable alumni responded Friday to a joke Jimmy Fallon made about the Troy men’s basketball team on Wednesday’s episode of The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.
DeMarcus Ware, former defensive end for the Dallas Cowboys, Denver Broncos and Troy Trojans, posted an 18-second video to his twitter account Friday asking “Who is Jimmy Fallon, anyways?”
“I’m tired of people talking all that trash,” Ware said in the video “I tell you what, I want to say congratulations to the men’s and women’s basketball teams for doing what you do… Who is Jimmy Falllon, anyways?”
The segment that caused the uproar from Trojan fans had parodied Shaquille O’Neal supposedly picking games in the March Madness bracket.
Right off the bat, the segment brought up the Troy-Duke matchup.
“Duke versus Troy? That sounds like a fight between two skinny white dudes. What’s Troy? That’s not a college. Who goes to Troy? No one goes to Troy. Duke wins,” the segment went.
Trojan students, faculty, alumni and other fans, dubbing themselves Trojan Nation, responded almost immediately with the hashtags #igototroy and #iwenttotroy. The tweets directed memes, insults and jokes towards Fallon’s accounts.
Some people also mentioned Ware, such as one tweet that read: “@DeMarcusWare, you gonna let them talk bad about (Troy University)?? Help us spread #IGoToTroy & #TROYUspirit to let @jimmyfallon know who’s boss!!”
Fans also mentioned former Troy defensive end Osi Umenyiora, who also played in the NFL with the New York Giants and the Atlanta Falcons, as a notable alumnus and it didn’t take long for Umenyiora to chime in as well.
“You know what DeMarcus– I don’t know who this Jimmy Fallon guy is either, but I tell you one thing: he better put some respect on Troy’s name, otherwise he can catch me outside,” Umenyiora said. “How about that?”
Both Ware and Umenyiora have won Super bowls during their careers.
Some other notable alumni of Troy University include former astronauts Kevin Kregel and William Gregory, CNN news anchor Tom Foreman, WWE champion Bray Wyatt and many more.